This is the journal of a thirty-something guy who grew up in the mountains of Bukidnon, spent his college in a campus by the sea in the Visayas and now is struggling to be somebody in Metropolitan Manila.

Friday, November 21, 2008

If you are the Royalties of Dubai, U.A.E. and owner of the Atlantis Resort Hotels, you will treat your A-List celebrities and other guest for the opening of your hotel to an extravagant firework display and breathtaking lights, lasers, and sounds show.

And this is what they just did. They placed more than one hundred thousand fireworks along The Palm (if you were born not from this age, that is the man made island shape like a Palm Tree off the coast of Dubai) and created a light show that would seem to look like the Atlantis Hotel rise up from the waters (the legend of the Atlantis, remember?).

It was Phenomenal! It made the fireworks display during Beijing Olympics looks boring compared to the grandeur that this created. Never mind if the rest of the world is in recession. Never mind if the other Atlantis hotels are having problems with their bookings. If you have the money, don't just spend it - - SPLURGE! (Do I sound sarcastic?) Here watch the extravagance! Wonderful, Phenomenal, Breathtaking, but still an extravagance and I love it!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

From the day John McCain announced that Sarah Palin was his running mate, I was already skeptical. My initial reaction was, this move was an attempt to catch the Hillary voters.

That skepticism turned to disgust after hearing her in those interviews and her relishing her role as an attack dog. Palin's repeating those "palling around with terrorist" lines no matter how many facts checks were released stating that it isn't true was irritating.

But in fairness to her, bad comments coming after the election about her (i.e. Palin thought that Africa is a country) which allegedly came from McCain's top advisers are equally disgusting. These are the people who vetted for her, people who said that she can be just one heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world. And now they are all saying these. If these are the kind of people surrounding McCain, it is no longer surprising why they failed in this election.

Friday, October 31, 2008

No, these are not gay guys dressed in super heroes costumes with super human powers. They are actually the "cabinet", a group of extremely rich gay guys who financed politicians who are running against an "anti-gay politicians". Here's an article from Time.Com:

The Gay Mafia That's Redefining Politics

By John Cloud/Beverly Hills, Friday, Oct. 31, 2008

Few weeks before Virginia's legislative elections in 2005, a researcher working on behalf of a clandestine group of wealthy, gay political donors telephoned a Virginia legislator named Adam Ebbin. Then, as now, Ebbin was the only openly gay member of the state's general assembly. The researcher wanted Ebbin's advice on how the men he represented could spend their considerable funds to help defeat anti-gay Virginia politicians.

Ebbin, a Democrat who is now 44, was happy to oblige. (Full disclosure: in the mid-'90s, Ebbin and I knew each other briefly as colleagues; he sold ads for Washington City Paper, a weekly where I was a reporter.) Using Ebbin's expertise, the gay donors — none of whom live in Virginia — began contributing to certain candidates in the state. There were five benefactors: David Bohnett of Beverly Hills, Calif., who in 1999 sold the company he had co-founded, Geo-Cities, to Yahoo! in a deal worth $5 billion on the day it was announced; Timothy Gill of Denver, another tech multimillionaire; James Hormel of San Francisco, grandson of George, who founded the famous meat company; Jon Stryker of Kalamazoo, Mich., the billionaire grandson of the founder of medical-technology giant Stryker Corp.; and Henry van Ameringen, whose father Arnold Louis van Ameringen started a Manhattan-based import company that later became the mammoth International Flavors & Fragrances.

The five men spent $138,000 in Virginia that autumn, according to state records compiled by the nonprofit Virginia Public Access Project. Of that, $48,000 went directly to the candidates Ebbin recommended. Ebbin got $45,000 for his PAC, the Virginia Progress Fund, so he could give to the candidates himself. Another $45,000 went to Equality Virginia, a gay-rights group that was putting money into many of the same races.

On Election Day that year, the Virginia legislature stayed solidly in Republican hands; the Democratic Party netted just one seat. But that larger outcome masked an intriguing development: anti-gay conservatives had suffered considerably. For instance, in northern Virginia, a Democrat named Charles Caputo (who received $6,500 from Ebbin's PAC) had beaten a Christian youth minister, Chris Craddock, by an unexpectedly large margin, with a vote of 56% to 41%. Three other candidates critical of gays were also defeated, including delegate Richard Black, who had long opposed gay equality in Richmond. Black had had no single donation as large as the $20,000 that Ebbin's PAC gave his opponent. "This was my ninth election campaign, and it wasn't unusual to have homosexuals involved," says Black, who now practices law. "But it was different, certainly, in degree. There had not been a concerted influx of money from homosexuals as a group before."

The group that donated the money to use against Black and the others is known as the Cabinet, although you won't find that name on a letterhead or even on the Internet. Aside from Bohnett, 52; Gill, 55; Hormel, 75; Stryker, 50; and Van Ameringen, 78, the other members of the Cabinet are Jonathan Lewis (49-year-old grandson of Joseph, co-founder of Progressive Insurance) and Linda Ketner, 58, heiress to the Food Lion fortune, who is running for Congress against GOP Representative Henry Brown Jr. of South Carolina.

Ketner's is something of a long-shot bid — her district has been reliably Republican for years — but recently Congressional Quarterly described her "suddenly strong run" against Brown as "the biggest surprise" in this year's House races. Ketner, who was invited to join the all-male Cabinet as a way of diversifying it, declined to discuss her role in the group.

Among gay activists, the Cabinet is revered as a kind of secret gay Super Friends, a homosexual justice league that can quietly swoop in wherever anti-gay candidates are threatening and finance victories for the good guys. Rumors abound in gay political circles about the group's recondite influence; some of the rumors are even true. For instance, the Cabinet met in California last year with two sitting governors, Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, both Democrats; political advisers who work for the Cabinet met with a third Democratic governor, Wisconsin's Jim Doyle. The Cabinet has also funded a secretive organization called the Movement Advancement Project (MAP), which a veteran lesbian activist describes as the "Gay IRS." MAP keeps tabs on the major gay organizations to make sure they are operating efficiently. The October 2008 MAP report notes, for example, that the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force fails to meet Better Business Bureau standards for limiting overhead expenses.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Gallup came up with a result of its world polling on who among Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain would non-US Citizens prefer to be the next President of the United States. The result was overwhelmingly for Obama, 4 to 1.

Of the Seventy (70) countries surveyed by Gallup, only two countries showed McCain winning with a significant margin. These countries are Georgia and the Philippines. Yes dear, the Philippines! Twenty-eight percent (28%) favored McCain over Obama's twenty percent (20%).

Now, I would like to make this caveat: what I am going to say next is purely based on my opinion and may not be supported by studies.

I can understand why McCain would win in the Philippines. No matter how we may deny it, Filipinos still have some racial biases and prejudices against non-whites. Filipinos would still prefer a white over a black. Just check groceries and see how many whitening soaps and lotions available in the Filipino market today. Daily Filipinos are bombarded with messages that white is way much better than anything dark. You are instantly a hit if you are a mestizo or a mestiza, but if you are dark colored, you still have a lot of convincing to do. (Ted also wrote a story about the attitudes of some Filipino-American’s towards Obama)

Another issue would probably be the outsourcing industry in the Philippines. The Philippines have truly benefited from the Republican administration’s policy of allowing American Industries to ship some of the jobs abroad. Almost every buildings in Metro Manila right now are filled with Call Center and Business Processing Offices catering to the various industries in the US. There is a perception here in the Philippines that a Democrat, especially Barack Obama, would not support outsourcing and would protect the job security of the American workers.

But why would I still prefer Obama over McCain.No matter how many times he will deny it, McCain would still continue the policies of George W. Bush. These policies have brought all the troubles that not just the US is facing right now, but the rest of the world as well, the Philippines included.

First there is Iraq. To this date, McCain is still insisting that going to war in Iraq is the right thing to do. He constantly criticizes Obama about not admitting that the surge have brought some good things to Iraq, forgetting that going to Iraq was wrong on the first place. Iraq was a symbol of the US bullying the rest of the world and this gave all those extremist a rallying point, emboldens them and making the world even more dangerous than it is before 9/11.

Second, McCain and the Republicans (most of them) are in denial that Climate Change is caused by manmade reasons. For them, burning gasses and drilling oil is not really the main cause of Global Warming. Remember Sarah Palin during the Vice Presidential debate? She mentioned that Global Warming is mainly caused by some cycles of the wind and human interventions have nothing to do with it.

The US, being the most powerful country in the world should lead in the campaign against Climate Change. But how can the US lead with a Republican Administration that is being supported by lobbies from Oil Companies? One of the reasons why the Kyoto protocol did not succeed is because the US is not and refuses to be a signatory to this agreement. With McCain being the President, I can’t see hope for a fight against Climate Change.

Third, the economy. It is unfortunate that the Philippine is dependent on the US Economy. With all these economic woes that the US and the rest of the world is facing, Mc Cain never showed anything that he has the capacity to lead the US in solving this crisis. Besides, this economic problem that the US is facing right now was because of the Republican policies in allowing the market to dictate its own course with little regulations from the government. I simply cannot imagine another four years of a Republican in the White House.

Fourth, McCain is old and if he gets elected and something happens to him, God forbid, Sarah Palin would become the US President. If she becomes US President, to paraphrase Tina Fey, I don’t want to become a citizen of this Earth. Palin scares me.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Time for Palin to answer Tough Questionsby Roland MartinCNN Contributor

(CNN) -- Do you know what was so great about Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan? They were three of the biggest trash talkers in the history of the NBA, but they had the game to back it up.

Somebody should tell that to Gov. Sarah Palin.

Sen. John McCain's vice presidential running mate has been running around the country, firing up her -- yes, her, and not necessarily McCain's -- loyal supporters by blasting Sen. Barack Obama for "palling around with terrorists" and demanding that the American people know exactly when he learned of the past of 1960s radical William Ayers.

She has stoked the crowds by saying, "This is not a man who sees America the way that you and I see America." We all know what that is designed to do: Portray Obama as a foreigner who isn't as American as she. Or you. Or Joe Six-pack, the hockey mom, soccer mom, Wal-Mart mom, NASCAR dad and the other coded words she uses regularly.

But what is truly pathetic is that Palin talks tough, but is really scared of facing her own issues.

Since she is good at proclaiming that the American people need to know who Barack Obama is -- an attempt to paint him as a shady figure who might occupy the White House -- the American people deserve to hear Palin answer if her husband, Todd, a former member of the Alaska Independence Party, agreed with its founder, who wanted to secede from the union.

Is there anything more anti-American than wanting to sever ties with the country?

It's critical that Palin answer questions about whether she disagrees with John McCain's criticism of the Bush administration's decision to remove North Korea from the terrorist nation list. She spoke in favor of it. McCain didn't. Are they on the same page or not?

The American people deserve to hear from Palin as to why she didn't say a word to rebuke the hateful, pathetic and degrading comments made at rallies featuring her, such as when someone in the crowd called Obama a terrorist, someone else shouted, "Off with his head" and others suggested he is a traitor.

Lastly, don't you think the self-described maverick needs to own up to what really happened with the firing of the commissioner in Alaska? She was declared by a special investigator to have been within her rights in firing the commissioner, but she was blasted for abuse of power and violating the state's ethics act.

So what did she say in a conference call with Alaska reporters -- who were not allowed by the McCain camp to ask follow-up questions? That she was cleared of all wrongdoing, legally and ethically.

That's right. She repeated over and over and over an absolute lie, and we are supposed to say, "Hey, it's all fine. She winks at us. We love her hockey mom schtick. Don't worry about that abuse of power thing."

Well, after having to deal with Vice President Dick Cheney being accused of beating the drum for war by berating and pushing our intelligence apparatus to match his political views on Iraq, don't you think we should really care about someone who has been accused in a report, authorized by Democrats and Republicans, of using their power and influence to get their way?

Sure, her supporters will say she's talked to the "media." She was questioned by Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and that self-described journalist -- yes, he really called himself that -- Fox's Sean Hannity.

Palin has done interviews with ABC's Charlie Gibson and CBS's Katie Couric, and local TV folks. But why is she so scared of NBC's Brian Williams? And why is she so fearful of CNN?

Does she somehow think that our big guns like Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Campbell Brown are just too tough in asking questions? My goodness, Tina Fey has actually done more interviews about playing Sarah Palin than Sarah Palin has done about being Sarah Palin!

Hmmm. McCain, Sen. Joe Biden, Barack and Michelle Obama, Sen. Hillary Clinton, Cindy McCain and even McCain's 95-year-old momma and Palin's daddy have all done interviews with CNN, sharing their thoughts on the campaign. But Palin? Not a whisper.

It's clear that Palin really isn't a true frontier woman. See, when you tote a gun, carry a big stick and spit fire, you aren't afraid to take on all comers.

So, Sarah, if you want to talk big on the campaign trail to those audiences that don't talk back, go right ahead. But if you truly are the maverick politician you say you are, come on and talk to us soft, coddled, elitist journalists. Surely we aren't as tough as the moose you like to take down with your Second Amendment-protected hunting rifle.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

My Last entry in this blog was more than a year ago already. I miss my blog, I hope I could find sometime to write again. There's a lot to share for almost one year and ten months that I have been silent. I'll share it to you, for the meantime, here's some pictures for you to enjoy. These two pictures were taken using my Motorola Phone during our (Dyames and I) not so recent trip to the Manila Ocean Park.